On the market for Aug. 3

On the Market

Tom Ross' On the Market column appears Sundays in the Real Estate section of the Steamboat Pilot & Today. Contact him at 871-4205 or e-mail tross@SteamboatToday.com.

Fractional market chalks up 75 sales

Re-sales of fractional ownerships at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel led the Steamboat market during the first six months of 2008.

Bruce Carta of Land Title Guarantee Co. compiled statistics from Routt County government that show the fractional market here compiled sales totaling just more than $6 million during the first six months of the year.

The Steamboat Grand accounted for 65 percent of the dollar volume, with $3.93 million in sales spread over 31 transactions. The average transaction price at the Grand was $126,884.

The total number of fractional transactions through June was 75. There were eight in the month of June alone. Christie Club and the Porches were ahead of the Grand in average transaction price, albeit on lower volume. Christie Club saw $1.15 million in sales on five transactions average $230,600. The Porches recorded two sales, which combined for $640,000.

Routt County on a

budget in South Routt

David Baldinger Jr. of Steamboat Village Brokers reports that building lots in South Routt County represent one of the remaining opportunities to acquire real estate in the upper Yampa Valley for less than $200,000.

Prospective buyers can look at a Sky Hitch lot at Stagecoach and another at Morningside at Stagecoach. There is also a residential lot in Oak Creek in that price range.

Buyers whose earnings-to-debt ratio allows them to afford between $200,000 and $400,000 can consider a four-bedroom log home in Coyote Run at Stagecoach.

There are also one- and two-bedroom condominiums near the base of the Steamboat Ski Area in that price range. They include units at The West, Shadow Run, Storm Meadows, Timber Run, Sunray Meadows, The Timbers and Whistler Village.

Home prices increase despite volume drop

Doug Labor of Buyer's Resource Real Estate reports that median purchase prices in Routt County and Steamboat Springs are increasing even as transaction volume (demand) drops about 20 percent and inventory (supply) increases.

Even though inventory is up 90 percent, Labor said, prices of single-family homes are holding steady and even growing in all regions of the larger Steamboat market.

The median prices of single-family homes in the city limits have increased by 16 percent in the past year, to $855,000.

When one considers that home sales at the highest price points in Steamboat are one of the strongest segments of the market thus far in 2008, it's reasonable to conclude that they have stretched the median.

The median price point is that at which half the sales were at lower prices and half were at higher prices. With seven sales priced above $3 million in the first half of the year, it's likely they could have pulled the median up. Those $3 million-plus homes sales do even more to skew the average sales price.

Comments

tom ross's real estate articles seem to give the local market the best possible light and actually go to far sometimes. without realtors finally lowering prices to match the faultering economy his efforts are waisted. realtors wake up housing is limping. price the product to match the market. leave greed for aspen realtors.

I don't see how Tom Ross is doing anything other than presenting facts. Ringalarm, you seem to be reading too much national news. The Steamboat real estate market has nothing to do with the headlines you are reading in the National Enquirer.

The comments on this post remind me of ones I hear often....from renters.

The market is making a very apparent top, and is on the downward slope already. Even though the average price is increasing, resulting from wealthy buyers still being able to afford to buy, the foundation of the market, the middle class buyer, is not buying, which in the near term means that the entire market is going to adjust down. Those second homes and condos that were snapped up years ago have become one of the first items to get cut back on in this economy.

People are merely shifting to the more desirable properties, and away from the overpriced hovels.

When folks figure out that $600k in Clark buys a custom home while it takes $855k in town for a fixer-upper jammed into old town, where do you think they're going to buy? $255k buys a lot of gas and cars, plus the scenery is lots better and there are no crowds.

I guess city dwellers from elsewhere want to live in the city, but lots of people with money to spend on a "get-away" really want to "get away."

The realtors are the only ones will suffer, because they live on the turnover. Anyone who has owned a home for 4 or 5 years is in line to make a nice profit and move up, or out, to something better when the time is right for them.